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Thursday, May 09, 2013

On 5th May 2013, me like every other Malaysians anticipated this very important day. The day when we, the citizens of Malaysia, get to choose the leaders who we think deserves to be the government of Malaysia.

And as a first time voter, I was more anxious than ever. But before I start writing about GE13, let me share with you about my general election story during my younger days.

When I was much younger, I didn't really knew much about election. I never understood the general election frenzy. I did not get the buzz. All my mom told me was, "If you don't vote during election, bank won't approve your loan when you intend to purchase a house in the future." Which was pretty much untrue as you and i know it. But being a much younger me, I believed it wholeheartedly and really thought that was what general election is all about.

My father, who is a DAP supporter, on the other hand, never bothered explaining why he voted. Well, he was never home much anyway, so let's just skip his part.

So, the younger me was basically just plain ignorant and un-educated on Malaysia's economic and political status. I didn't even register to vote during the 2008's election, I was 23, still ignorant. Perhaps, situations were not so horrendous back then for me to take notice. And yeah, I was a The Star newspaper reader back then, so I was pretty much blinded by the one lies after another. I was deceived into believing that our economy is growing robustly and our politicians are angels sent from heaven.

Fast forward to 2013, with the help of social media sites, I have gained better insights and my eyes are finally opened wide to see what is actually going on in my country. Corruptions, frauds, power abuse, cronism, etc. I finally understand what the hype is all about.

I travelled back to Butterworth right after work on 3rd May 2013 with a mixed feelings. Excited, worried, happy and at the same frustrated reading news after news about the dirty tactics played by the current goverment to secure more votes.

So when 5th May finally came, I walked over my polling station at SJK Tamil Mak Mandin, which was 2 minutes away from my house in Butterworth. I was anticipating a huge crowd, but to my amazement, the school was pretty much empty. It was noon the time I casted my vote.

With no access of internet, I was pretty much left in the dark on what was going on in other states. Eventhough there were updates on national news programs, I knew too well to not believe in anything reported on by the mainstream media.

7pm onwards, me and my mom, left with no choice, had to rely on the national news for the election results. Results from Sarawak and Sabah were reported first. And I was really nervous because the opposition was trailing slowly behind BN.

At about 10pm, I had to leave to the train station to catch the train back to Kuala Lumpur. So once again without any internet connection nor TV, I was not aware of the election's results. I kept my fingers crossed and prayed for the opposition to win because like all Malaysians regardless of race and age, we had enough and we are ready for a change. It's time for UBAH!

I reached Kuala Lumpur the next day at around 6am. And the first question that I asked my husband was, "Did PR won?"

And to my disappointment, BN won majority of parliament seats by cheating. Electricity blackout, additional voting ballots appeared out of no where, last minute recounts and many other filthy tactics were schemed by BN in order to win.

Words couln't describe the feeling of frustrations that every Malaysian had that day. But it was also this day that mademe realized that I need to do more besides voting. It hit me that it's time for me to play my part as a rakyat to secure a better future and better Malaysian.

I am confident that the Malaysians will fight together to achieve what we deserved because I strongly believe that "the sun will shine after every storm".